Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i American Art Collector

One of the first major events of the year is the LA Art Show. The fair, which happens typically over the second or third weekend of January, is a staple of the art world on the West Coast and brings over 80 contemporary and traditional art dealers to the Los Angeles Convention Center each year. This year, the show broke an attendance record by bringing in nearly 70,000 people to the three-day event. That is 70,000 people coming to look at art in downtown Los Angeles on January days with the thermometer nearing 80. But people didn’t just show up. They bought. Several galleries I spoke with told me that the show this year was the best they have ever done sales wise. And it’s not just from the LA…

When our first Re-presenting Representation exhibition opened at Arnot Art Museum in 1993, some people commented that there were too few women artists. I had selected what I considered the best traditional and edgy art from the few galleries who had an interest in contemporary realism and I hadn’t considered their gender. Over the two years of preparing for the second of the RR shows, I discovered there weren’t many women artists represented in the galleries. Recommendations from those who were represented and word of mouth fed a conscious effort to make the second and future exhibitions more inclusive. In 2012, on behalf of the artists, Alexandra Tyng asked me to write the introduction for the exhibition Women Painting Women—The Expedition and Beyond. The blog “Women Painting Women” had begun…

Quirk Gallery Carli Holcomb, Transient, Feb. 22-April 1 Page Bond Gallery Sarah Irvine and Julie Wolfe, March Candela Books + Gallery Morgan Ashcom, March and April ADA Gallery Ryan Browning: General Drift March 2-31, 2018 Quirk Gallery Blythe King, Two Sides of the Same Coin March 8-May 8, with opening reception and artist talk March 8, 5-8 p.m. Reynolds Gallery Robert Stuart and Richard Roth solo exhibitions; VCU Fountainhead Fellows: Sara Stern, Ryan Lucero and Jeanne Medina, March 16-April 27, with opening receptions March 16, 7-9 p.m. Visual Art Center of Richmond Collector’s Night: The Dark Room March 17 Visual Art Center of Richmond Trish Tillman Opening, March 30, 5:30-8 p.m. Studio Two Three CURRENT Books, March 31 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts In Our Own Words: Native Impressions 2015-16,…

When Irish-born Elizabeth O’Reilly was a student at Brooklyn College, Lois Dodd invited her and other fellow students to paint at Dodd’s home in Blairstown, New Jersey, near the Delaware Water Gap. Thus began a 25-year friendship and painting comradeship. Both artists will show their work in the exhibition Painting Winter at George Billis Gallery in New York City from March 13 through April 7. O’Reilly and Dodd would often paint the winter landscape in plein air, bundled up and armed with piles of newspaper to keep their feet from getting wet. Today they often approach wintery scenes from the wonderful upstairs windows of Dodd’s home. O’Reilly often returns to the same subject. “When I started out,” she says, “I thought I needed a different subject for every painting. Going…

Utah-based artist Clay Wagstaff works in series, some of which have been in progress for 20 years. Mountains, moonscapes and oceans are a few of the subjects he’s returned to again and again throughout the decades, and which will be on view in a show at Terzian Galleries. “I like to travel, seeing new landscapes and getting inspiration from them. It can be a small thing, like a dewdrop on a branch, or grand scenes, but I always manage to fill up the well when I’m traveling,” Wagstaff explains. Because he paints in series, an element of one painting might produce ideas for a future project, so Wagstaff is often thinking nine or 10 paintings into the future. Over time, he has refined his technique and attention to detail. “I…

Light Chasers, a plein air organization of the Florida Suncoast, will present its seventh annual Member Show and Featured Artist Show at Edson Keith Mansion in Sarasota. From 5 to 8 p.m. on March 16, the show will open and include the group’s Featured Artists Dominic Avant, Katie Dobson Cundiff, Susan J. Foster, Michelle Held, Joseph Melancon, Morgan Samuel Price, Hodges Soileau and Cory Wright, as well as guest artist Joseph McGurl, showcasing their work to thousands of art lovers and collectors. Continuing through March 18, Light Chasers will also host its Paint Sarasota Paint Out show and awards. Approximately 100 artists sign up for the Paint Sarasota Paint Out each year, making it one of the largest events of its kind in Florida. Light Chasers also partners with some…

Natalia Fabia is a skillful artist who is capable of painting female subjects with wild abandon and emotional tenderness on the same canvas. Her lifelong fascination with images of women’s bodies and faces, alongside fashion, makeup and hair as both artistic design and personal statement, combined with an obsessive drawing habit since childhood, finds a gorgeously color-drenched outlet in Fabia’s body of work. In Fabia’s presentation of her female subjects, she strives to paint from the inside out, with the over-the-top costumes and makeup serving as a foil to what a male painter might sexualize given the same model and setting, while at the same time reveling in the power of what these poses and suggestive tableaus hold. Fabia portrays the faint boundaries between the reality and fantasy of the…

My father used the weather predictions of The Old Farmer’s Almanac to plan his fall golf vacation on Cape Cod. Established in 1792, the almanac tells me that at 311 feet above sea level Albany, New York, can expect its last spring frost around April 28 and to have a growing season of 164 days. Savannah’s season, for comparison, is 266 days. When she lived in Albany, Leigh Wen created not only monumental paintings of the four elements—earth, air, fire and water—but also bucked the short growing season and had lush gardens which she thinned on occasion and shared the treasures with her friends. My gardens in the southern Finger Lakes benefitted from her largesse. Recently, Wen has turned her attention to painting flowers—bee’s eye views of nearly 6-foot single…

Karin Jurick has been sketching people looking at art since she was a little girl accompanying her painter mother to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In her newest show at Robert Lange Studios, Jurick depicts museumgoers admiring the work of renowned portraitist John Singer Sargent. Approaching Sargent’s works can be intimidating, Jurick admits, but she has been obsessed with his work since she was a teenager. In his pieces, she sees what she calls “sweet spots” everywhere, and she strives to emulate them in her own paintings. “They are the wisp of a paintbrush that convinces you the fabric on the dress is satin, or the dot of color that makes you believe that pearls are shiny. When I look at his work in person, I see these strokes of…

Kevin Sloan’s paintings have been witty, entertaining and flawlessly executed. Several years ago he realized he needed to revisit old themes and pick up lost threads. “I took the position that I needed to give myself time and space to try new things,” he says. “I had to give myself permission to do it.” Two consecutive summers of studying with Enrique Martínez Celaya at Anderson Ranch helped him focus. A classic polymath, Celaya was trained as a physicist but left his Ph.D. program to pursue art. He has published books on art, poetry, philosophy and physics—and he teaches and inspires. “I felt listening to Enrique was an affirmation. He keeps true to himself,” Sloan explains. “He talked about the studio being a laboratory not a factory. I knew that in…

The untamed characteristics of the natural world have been an inspiration in the fairy-tale-like encaustic paintings of Mary Alayne Thomas. Having moved into her first home recently and beginning to cultivate a garden, Thomas has experienced this firsthand. The results of which will be seen on her canvases in an exhibition this March at Lotton Gallery in Chicago. “To create a perfectly pruned and orderly space is impossible, and not nearly so nice as to embrace that wildness and add what you can to it,” Thomas shares. “With my show, Beyond the Conservatory, I wanted to illustrate characters who welcomed the wild unknown and made it a part of themselves and their lives.” Over the past year, Thomas has focused more and more on painting women with flowers, animals and…

Sorrel Sky Gallery will host the Pastel Society of New Mexico for its National Pastel Painting Exhibition, now in its 26th year. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on March 2, and the exhibition continues through the month. The PSNM has held a national juried exhibition annually since 1991, attracting artists from across the United States, Canada and Europe. Now considered to be among the most prestigious pastel shows in the country, this event draws upward of 150 artists annually, each submitting up to 3 pieces of artwork completed during the previous 24 months. According to Shanan Campbell Wells, owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery, “With their enduring and luminous nature, pastel paintings are experiencing a resurgence of interest among collectors and art enthusiasts. We see…

Even though the artwork of Philip Taylor looks realistic, his goal is not to reproduce reality. Instead, he wants to re-create a reality that is within his head. “My ideas come to me as elements of color, pattern, design, costume and even architecture,” he says, “then my job is to put these elements together in a coherent composition.” Taylor, whose previous career was as a furniture maker specializing in antique reproductions, has found an appreciation for “elements of ornamental design that go into the things humans create.” He finds the process of combining these details in interesting ways to be compelling. Taylor adds, “The culmination of this love expresses itself in the human figure, which is a beauty that far exceeds our designs, and design acts as supporting cast for…

In his foreword to the scholarly catalog to the exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: 1958-1968, University of California, Davis, interim chancellor Ralph J. Hexter lays out a conundrum. “Generally speaking,” he writes, “Mr. Thiebaud’s images seem defiantly elementary and quaint in their subject matter and technique, and yet there is a strong sense that a sharp intelligence has been employed to produce them—which in turn demands and sometimes inspires the sharpest intelligence the beholder can muster. This is not to deny that his cupcakes and pies offer simple—one might say delicious—pleasures. But there is so much more. Humor and a sometimes mischievous spirit are typical qualities—as if the subjects and style of his works might be, at least in part, a practical joke on a world that requires a serious demeanor from…

Realism is coming back! Lost to decades of abstract art, contemporary figurative painting is experiencing a rebirth in a variety of styles. Contemporary figurative artists are becoming more popular among the gallerists and collectors alike, and with that the female artists rise and take part in more art shows than ever. Let’s look at the roundup of some women painters who continue the tradition of classical painting, yet are subjected to modern times and revelations. Every artist wants to achieve a unique voice in art that becomes a record of emotions, experiences and history. Many are influenced by Baroque painting, wish to find purpose or to depict the duality in everyday life. Yet, the approaches to painting are vastly different. In this interview, painters answer a single question: What do…

Anchored by one of the nation’s top ranked art and design schools, cultivated by resident visionaries and paralleled with a civic devotion toward a progressive future, Richmond’s art community is establishing itself as a contemporary and dynamic cultural destination. The city is rich with American history and while its role has been significant in the shaping of our nation, its past is riddled with segregated ideals and racial struggles. While honoring its important history, Richmond looks at the future with an inspired and inclusive vision reliant on an excited commitment to the arts. “Viewing a conflicted past from a creative present, Richmond’s artists engage the city’s citizens in conversations that challenge and change.” This statement was coined by Costume and Textiles Curator Kristen Stewart within the context of Our Hearts…

“Some of my best ideas come to me when I’m alone or on my bicycle,” Dina Brodsky admits. The idea of painting circular, approximately 2-inch, landscapes came to her on a camping trip when she looked through a friend’s binoculars for the first time and was fascinated by the round and highly detailed image. “They were little universes,” she exclaims. Forty-nine of her paintings will be shown in London at Pontone Gallery, through March 4, in the exhibition Dina Brodsky: Cycling Guide to Lilliput. Inspired by Indian miniature painting and medieval illuminated manuscripts, she decided, however, not to paint in a stylized or simplified way. “I’m a classically trained painter,” she explains. “I can’t simplify to save my life. I paint with 15th-century techniques. I would love to be able…

Growing up on the west coast of Canada, Robert Lundquist demonstrated a talent for painting from an early age and took five years of private instruction. In his early 20s he worked on construction sites framing houses and did some commercial fishing. It was his time on the water that inspired Lundquist to return to painting, with nature being his muse. Today, he translates the light, shadow and atmospheric conditions of the land in his watercolor and acrylic paintings. The pieces are realistic, but have what he calls, “a distant memory-like feel.” Lundquist also dedicates his time to highly realistic portraiture. “Inspiration used to be concerning, but with my new focus it’s become very easy to find and I cannot find the time to paint it all. Turns out it’s…

Chantel Lynn Barber knew the direction she wanted her art to take early on. Receiving an art magazine in the mail when she was 12 years old, she was impressed by two featured artists— both were masters, but their styles were quite different. The first artist worked in a photorealistic style. Barber vividly remembers his painting of a cowboy wearing a corduroy jacket. You could see every stitch in the fabric. The second artist worked in a looser, impressionistic style. Her pieces were just as real and vivid, but the movement created by her impressionistic strokes not only pulled the viewer into the painting, but evoked fabulous mystery. Immediately, Barber knew that though she could appreciate and marvel at both of these artists’ works, the style that resonated with her…